


Freedom of Choice

by AZGirl



Series: Whumptober 2020 [1]
Category: SEAL Team (TV)
Genre: Angst, Choices, Family, Friendship, Gen, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26782972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AZGirl/pseuds/AZGirl
Summary: One of them had less than a half an hour left to live.A three chapter story which fills three different Whumptober 2020 prompts. Chapter 1 - Day 2: Pick Who Dies. Chapter 2 - Day 9: Take Me Instead. Chapter 3 - Day 26: Concussion.
Series: Whumptober 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952908
Comments: 22
Kudos: 55





	1. Choices

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first in my limited series of stories written for Whumptober 2020. My goal was to fill 5 prompts for 5 different fandoms from the 7 prompts I used a random number generator to pick. 
> 
> I was originally only going to fill the prompt for *Day 2: Pick Who Dies*, but as it continued to grow, I realized I was accidentally filling a couple of other prompts not on my original list. It’s now a three-chapter fic filling three different prompts. Set post-season 2.22 Never Out of the Fight and pre-3.04 The Strength of the Wolf.

**ooooooo**

“You will know you made the right decision when you picked the hardest and most painful choice, but your heart is at peace.” ~~~~~ Unknown

“The only easy day was yesterday.” ~~~~~ U.S. Navy SEALs

**ooooooo**

**Chapter One: Choices**

One of them had less than a half an hour left to live.

They were being forced to choose one of their team to die, to atone for their past mistakes. The past mistakes of others in the U.S. military, which had come before them and also those in the village who, as a group, had chosen to help the Americans.

They’d helped the Americans, and then the latest in a long line of bad guys trying to take over the region had found out. Villagers were killed in retaliation, weapons and tools were taken, and food was stolen that could hardly be spared.

As a result, a village that was normally welcoming and friendly to the U.S. military had become the exact opposite. Unfortunately, the intel that Bravo team had been given had not been aware of this fact, and Jason, Trent, and Clay had walked right into trouble without the slightest warning.

Earlier, the team had split up, heading to two different villages to try and gather the most up to date information about the HVT they were after. Full Metal had been to one of the villages a couple of times, and knew some of the people spoke decent English. The other village would benefit from having an interpreter along, which luckily they had in Bravo 6, Clay Spenser.

Given their too-tight timeframe, the team had decided to split up. No one felt it was that great of an idea should something happen, not the least of which was Bravo 1, but they had to suck it up and do it anyway as they were lacking in choices. Both villages were reported to be friendly and had shared information in the past, which lessened the concern over splitting up the team slightly.

At a fork in the road, they’d split up: Ray, Sonny, Brock (with Cerberus), and Full Metal headed one direction, while Jason, Trent, and Clay headed in the other.

ooooooo

When they’d first arrived at the village, the people had seemed welcoming, if a bit more reserved than expected.

Something about them seemed off to Clay, especially after the locals had discovered he was very familiar with the area’s primary language. Unless directly asked a question, they didn’t really speak to the three of them. Plus, many had switched to speaking another, less-known dialect of the area, which Spenser had more than a passing familiarity with, but chose not inform anyone of that fact for the moment.

Not long after arriving, an older boy probably in his late teens had come running into the village center, carrying his much younger brother and screaming for help. From what Clay had gathered, the boy had been bitten by some kind of venomous snake. He’d gotten Trent, who he knew had antivenin in his med pack covering multiple species of snakes native to the area, for just such an emergency.

They weren’t strictly supposed to use it on non-military personnel, but Trent wasn’t about to let a child die if he could help prevent it. Besides, a little goodwill on their part might get the information flowing a little easier than it had so far.

Jason gave his permission to treat the boy, and Clay explained how they could help to the village’s leaders. Their reaction to the offer was a little odd, but in the end they’d accepted the help Trent could provide.

While Clay was helping Trent, he noticed the older brother had a long gash on his leg, probably acquired as the boy had raced towards home. Once Trent was to the point where his help was no longer needed, Clay sat the young man down and treated the leg. Thankfully, it hadn’t needed stitches, and the process of taking care of the wound served to keep the older brother distracted from what was going on with his little brother.

Clay had also managed to convince the young man he wasn’t to blame for his brother’s injury. Things happened regardless of how careful you were or how meticulously you planned. He knew that first hand from his time as part of Bravo, being the youngest on the team, as well as what had happened to him in Manila.

While this had been happening, he found out later, Jason had been taken aside by the only elder who had any English to meet the other elders of the village. While greeting the men, the English-speaker bashed Jason over the head, rendering him unconscious.

They’d apparently taken his weapons, because once he and Trent had finished treating the two boys, they’d stepped outside and right into the barrel of Bravo 1’s gun. They were told to surrender or their leader would be immediately killed.

Not knowing where Jason was at the moment, being outnumbered, and not having an opportunity to contact the rest of their team for backup, he and Trent had surrendered their weapons. Only the knowledge that they’d soon miss a check-in with the rest of Bravo gave them any hope for rescue and survival. They just had to delay and distract until help could arrive.

Taken to where Jason was being held, they were happy to see their boss relatively unharmed, though extremely ticked off about how he’d been ambushed from behind and dealing with a raging headache.

They were left to cool their heels for a while, with no one explaining exactly why they’d been taken prisoner. Trent used some of their downtime to diagnose a minor concussion for Jason. Meanwhile, Clay had strained to hear anything which might help their situation, only hearing snatches of conversation, which he chose not to relay – something about “killing”.

He hoped he’d misheard, or that it referred to animals, but he doubted it. Spenser should’ve reported what he heard, but he knew it would only serve to stress Jason out even more and ultimately be unproductive, especially if he’d heard the word out of context to their situation. 

A couple of hours later – and about half an hour after they’d missed their scheduled check in – a villager, gun-in-hand (his gun, in fact), “politely” requested Clay go with the man somewhere. Jason and Trent tried to follow, but the gun put to their younger brother’s head put paid to that notion.

Briefly, once the gun was away from his head, he had the idea of overtaking the man, who one-to-one would surely lose to a SEAL, even if armed. Unfortunately, when they stepped outside, he’d been met with two additional men, each wielding one of Bravo’s weapons. So much for that idea.

He’d been taken across the village to another building; from its location, he guessed it was the village’s main gathering place.

From just outside, he could hear two men arguing, and recognized that they were both speaking the dialect the villagers were unaware he understood.

The older of the two was arguing against killing them, because the Americans had saved his grandson’s life and treated his older grandson’s wound without much debate or delay. The younger of the two was adamant the Americans needed to pay for the misery unleashed upon them.

Another man, likely the leader, called a halt to the argument once he had been brought to stand before them. The village’s leader took a moment to describe the circumstances into which Bravo had stumbled and the council’s decision to kill the next Americans who visited. He then apologized for calling him to hear the verdict too early, because a grandfather had had a change of heart and was arguing for a new and different outcome than had already been decided.

In the language Clay was not known to understand, the leader then asked the remaining members of the village council their thoughts, given the change in circumstances. Meanwhile, Clay was listening to their conversation and trying not to give away he understood the local dialect as well as the regional one, which was his attempt to “work the problem” as Jason would say.

Only Spenser couldn’t think of any way out of the problem other than to stall things as much as possible to give the rest of Bravo time to come for them. For the time being, he also decided to not give up his language advantage, hoping it might come in handy.

From the discussion he was listening to, Clay could tell the grandfather of the boys they’d helped was swaying the decision away from killing them. Yet, the other man, the one he thought might have had a loved one killed, was proposing a solution which Spenser was definitely against. Unfortunately, for the captive members of Bravo, that proposal was the one the council had decided upon.

Moments later, the sentence was officially pronounced.

Originally, all three of them were going to be executed, but apparently rendering aid to the two kids had essentially bought back two of their lives. Now only one of them would be executed, but even worse was that they would have to choose amongst themselves who would be executed. 

However, in deference to the grandfather, that man was going to be given a small chance to live.

Instead of an immediate execution, such as a bullet to the head, the chosen one would have to face being stoned to death. Each adult who chose to take part would be allowed only one throw, and it would be done one stone at a time. If after all the stones were thrown, and the condemned was still alive, then that man would be set free and the village’s need for revenge would be considered sated.

Now that Clay was fully informed of their fubar situation, he next had to break the news to Jason and Trent. He could very well imagine how the two men would react to the information, especially the part about the choice they were being forced to make – to pick one of them to face execution by stoning.

As the armed men returned him to the cell, Clay realized the choice was a no-brainer. It had to be him.

Trent is their medic. For the chosen one to have any sort of chance of staying alive once the stoning ended, then it couldn’t be Trent.

Jason is their leader, and the team needed him. Plus, there were Jason’s kids to consider, and Clay couldn’t bear the thought of more than likely leaving them orphans should the execution be fully carried out.

Besides a father who cared more about himself and fame than his son, Clay had no one. He was just another sailor who could shoot straighter than most and knew a few languages. No one special; a dime a dozen. Add in the fact that his blown up leg would likely force an earlier than desired retirement from the field, and there really was no other choice. It made the most sense, and he was determined to take the hit for his team if their backup didn’t arrive in time to stop the execution.

Even though it would be painful, and he would likely die, it had to be him. He would make sure of it.

Jason took the news about as well as Spenser had expected, which was not well at all with a side of ranting and raving. His team lead refused to even entertain the idea of making such a decision in hopes of stalling long enough for help to arrive.

Spenser looked at his watch and knew it was going to be close. Because of something he hadn’t reported to the master chief, he knew he would have to offer himself when their captors returned. The village leader had strongly implied that, if they didn’t make a choice, then all three of them would die – their executions would be carried out immediately, giving them no chance at all to survive.

As their time ticked down to zero, Clay watched Jason pace back and forth like a caged lion until Trent made him sit down after the man had become unsteady in his footsteps, likely due to the concussion’s effects.

He couldn’t help but count down the minutes he had left, thinking about the regrets he had in life and the dreams he had that would never be fulfilled. The one thought that kept coming back to the fore of his mind was that he was thankful his death would save his brothers’ lives.

ooooooo

**_To be continued on Day 9._ **

**ooooooo**


	2. Chances

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a fill for Day 9: Take Me Instead.

**ooooooo**

**Chapter Two: Chances**

The village leader came early to their cell. 

Spenser thought he’d had at least five more minutes before he would have to face his potential – probable? – death, but apparently he was wrong, or the villagers were overeager in their desire to see someone pay for what had happened to them.

Backed up by men training their own guns on them, the elder entered their cell and spoke directly to Clay, obviously expecting him to translate to the others.

“Have you made your choice?”

Spenser had barely finished translating when Jason yelled, “Not going to happen. You have no right to do this to us! We had nothing to do with what happened to your village. If someone needs to die, then it’s those who killed your people – not us!”

Clay began translating Bravo 1’s exact words to the village leader despite knowing it would do no good and get them all killed. As he spoke, he noticed the change in their guards’ stances, looking as if they were preparing for the order to terminate all three of them.

Spenser couldn’t allow that to happen, and blurted out in their “secret” dialect, “Please, don’t! I will suffer the punishment decided by your council. Take me. Don’t hurt my brothers. Take me.”

The leader’s expression was one of shock before turning to anger upon hearing the language the villagers believed the outsiders didn’t know. After a moment, he nodded and gestured roughly for Clay to be taken away.

As the men grabbed his arms, Jason said, “Spenser! Please tell me you didn’t.”

“Sorry, boss. It’s the only way,” Clay replied as the men started leading him out of the room. “They would’ve killed all of us if we hadn’t made a choice.”

As he’s being led away and outside, he could hear both Trent and Jason yelling obscenities, threats, and entreaties aimed at the villagers with some aimed towards him as well because of the choice he’d made. He hoped his brothers would come to respect his choice to make this sacrifice and that they’d one day forgive him for what he’d done.

Spenser didn’t make it easy for the men taking him to his death, hoping to waste more time and increase the chance the rest of Bravo would show up before he was killed. He struggled in his captives’ arms, and pled for mercy in their particular dialect to the villagers as he passed them. He reminded them that he had not committed any of the atrocities, that he would’ve stopped them if he had been there.

He considered making an attempt to escape, but there were too many weapons pointed at him, and he was afraid the leader would kill Jason and Trent after he was dead. He understood the villagers were acting out their grief and their anger on the first people they could take it out on. It had just been bad luck that the members of Bravo team were the first outsiders to step foot in the village after the tragedy had occurred. Spenser absurdly still had hopes the villagers would see reason before it was too late. 

Clay was tied to a wooden stake, which had been driven into the ground in front of what he thought of as the community center.

His eyes swept over the crowd, hoping for a sympathetic group who might try to halt the proceedings, but while there was sympathy on some faces, there was also no intention to stop what was about to happen. The children and those adults not participating, including the grandfather who’d argued against killing the three of them, were off to the sides of the crowd. In its center were those, who had anticipatory expressions on their faces, waiting to be given permission to start the execution.

Each person in the large group had a rock at least the size of a golf ball in their hands, with some as large as a baseball. All of the rocks looked as if they had been purposely chosen to be as sharp as possible.

Clay’s stomach sank into his feet at the realization that his chances of surviving so many hits was quite low, especially when he knew more of them than not would be direct hits to something vital on his body. Spenser tried to control his breathing, tried not to panic over what was about to happen to him, but it was almost impossible as he looked into the faces of those who wanted him dead. He was glad his brothers wouldn’t have to watch him die, because it was hard enough losing a teammate without having to watch it happen and not be able to do anything about it.

Hoping to stall the proceedings just a bit longer, Spenser yelled out to the leader, asking for his promise his brothers would be set free and unharmed afterwards. The leader voiced his promise aloud to the village, which gave him some comfort.

Those participating formed a loose line with the councilmembers at the head of it. Spenser noticed the one who had been particularly keen to kill all three of them was not that far back in the line and holding an almost softball-sized rock. The gleam in the man’s eyes was not particularly reassuring as to his chances for survival. Clay could only hope the councilman didn’t have a good aim, but knowing his luck, the guy was probably on par with a superstar pro baseball pitcher.

For some reason, the leader was hesitating to give the word the stoning could start, reiterating the restrictions and instructions. The waiting men were getting more impatient with every word, some of them getting more riled up and demanding permission to get started. Those not participating began loudly expressing their displeasure at the idea of stoning someone who had nothing personally to do with their misfortune.

Clay felt helpless in his position, something he never thought he’d feel again after Manila and its aftermath. To keep his mind off his lingering demons from that time, he listened to the opposing sides and wondered if a riot might not break out at any moment. The leader of the village, looking almost frightened by the crowd’s erratic behavior, seemed about to give in to the angry crowd, when new voices suddenly joined in, demanding to be heard. Spenser wasn’t sure, but he thought he recognized a Texas drawl in one of them.

Hope suddenly flaring in his chest that the rest of Bravo had finally arrived, Clay wasn’t prepared for the rock which hit his shoulder. In the next second, Spenser locked eyes with the elder who had been so adamant the Americans should die, and saw the man hurl a rock towards him at the same time he heard gunfire. For some reason, his eyesight narrowed to the rock and followed its trajectory towards his body.

A second later, he felt several jolts of pain over his body before his world went black.

ooooooo

**_To be concluded on Day 26._ **

**ooooooo**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *In the U.S., Election Day is less than a month away. Please don’t forget to carefully follow the instructions that come with your ballot whether you’re voting in person or by mail. Every vote counts.*


	3. Concussion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final, and shortest (sorry?), part of this story. A Whumptober 2020 fill for Day 26: Concussion.

**ooooooo**

**Chapter Three: Concussion**

The next thing he knew, Clay was treading water in the dark. As he moved, the water glided over his skin like silk and was the perfect temperature. The only sounds he could hear were the displacement of the water as he moved and his breathing. There was no one around for the longest time and he never tired of treading water or swimming when he had a mind to do it. Oddly, he was okay with being alone in the vast, never-ending body of water.

Eventually, the moon began to rise, illuminating the whole area which was devoid of everything except for him. The water remained inky black, but with the moonlight came a disturbing change – he could hear voices.

The voices were muffled at first, and curious, he tried to discern what they were saying.

Focusing as he was on the voices, Clay didn’t realize at first that the water had disappeared. His entire existence had morphed to become a black void, which seemed to be getting lighter and lighter.

The darkness receded. The voices became clearer.

And suddenly he is blinking rapidly at the much too-bright light in his eyes.

He starts gagging, and loses whatever was in his stomach, which burns his throat.

Hands help clean him up and settle him back on what he realizes is a bed. He is given several slivers of ice to suck on, which help to soothe his throat.

Clay is encouraged to try opening his eyes again, and he finds the lights had been dimmed. They are no longer daggers being plunged into his eyes, making him regret leaving the dark, quiet place he’d only recently been in.

His vision is blurry and he’s having difficulty concentrating, but he recognizes his brothers and is relieved to see them all alive and relatively unharmed.

He’s not able to stay awake very long that first time he remembers he was awake, and is happy to escape from the jackhammer trying to break apart his head.

Eventually, he is able to stay awake longer, and they tell him about what he’d already figured out: rescued, hospital, Grade 4 concussion, mission passed on to another team.

It’s not until he can concentrate better, and loud sounds no longer make him want to curl up and die, that Jason lays into him for what he’d done back in that village and promises creative retribution once Clay is out of the hospital and can walk in a straight line again.

It’s not until a couple days after that epic reprimand that Jason acknowledges Clay had done the best he could with so few choices.

“You shouldn’t have sacrificed yourself like that, Clay,” Jason said with an almost dangerous edge to his voice.

Clay looked away from Jason’s assessing gaze. “It was our only choice.”

“No, it wasn’t. Your failure to keep me and Trent informed took away some of our choices,” Jason said, looking exasperated and angry.

Spenser still believed what he’d done was the right decision for the right reasons, but he knew Jason didn’t want to hear that. He hadn’t a clue what to say instead, but thought it might be a good idea to apologize anyway.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know you are, kid.” Jason sat on the edge of his bed and laid a hand on his knee, squeezing it once gently before moving the hand. “But you’re still going to have to run drills until you get it in your head that you are not the expendable member of Bravo.”

ooooooo

**_The end._ **

**ooooooo**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Election Day in the U.S. is right around the corner. Don’t forget to vote, especially if you’ve opted to vote by mail or are using an absentee ballot, and pay attention to the rules and directions for your state. If you haven’t yet mailed back your ballots, then consider dropping them off in person or to a designated drop off place if that option is available in your state. Every vote counts.

**Author's Note:**

> In the U.S., Election Day is that much closer. Voting early, voting by mail, and absentee voting rules and regulations differ by state, so please check those out. Don’t forget to carefully follow the instructions that come with your ballot whether you’re voting in person or by mail. Every vote counts. 
> 
> Many thanks to Celticgal1041 for proofing. Any remaining mistakes are my fault. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> *Please do not repost or use this or any of my other works on another site or app without my knowledge or consent. FanFiction and Archive of Our Own are the only two sites (as AZGirl on both) where my fiction should be posted. Thank you!


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